


Ghostfacers

by unoriginalteen1



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith (Voltron), Ghost Hunters, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith/Lance (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Strangers to Lovers, adam and shiro aren't actually mentioned that much, i don't dwell on that fact a lot tho, idk how to tag, maybe i'll add tags later, only a little angst tho, this takes place in the same world as the show supernatural btw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:27:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23713600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unoriginalteen1/pseuds/unoriginalteen1
Summary: Lance is an amateur hunter who gets Keith (the local gas station employee) roped up in one of his adventures.
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Kudos: 25





	Ghostfacers

At approximately 2:13am, Lance McClain found himself drenched in paint, coated with dust, shirtless, and wandering into a gas station with exactly three dollars and thirty-seven cents. This wasn’t just any gas station, however, it was a gas station where he happened to be a regular and where he oftentimes found himself exchanging playful banter and landing petty arguments with resident emo Keith Kogane. On a normal night Keith wouldn’t be bothered much at all by the sight of Lance, or even the disheveled state he obviously seemed to be in, but this was not a normal night. 

The normal period of passing for Lance was anywhere from 4pm to 10pm. Of course, Keith assumed this was because the boy was still enrolled in high school, much unlike himself. Lance also made an effort not to be out and about during any sort of bad weather- though it was unclear whether or not this was his own philosophy or his mother’s. So seeing him here over four hours later than he would normally be reciting stories that Keith listened to without pointing out the obvious exaggerations and charming his way into discounts that didn’t exist was rather worrying. What the hell could he have been doing tonight that was different from the past few months? 

After quietly wandering the store for a couple of minutes, Lance walked up to the counter Keith was working and slapped the little money he had on the table along with a pack of gum, salt, and a lighter. Oddly enough, this wasn’t even weird to Keith. If this were a coffee shop this would be Lance’s “usual.” Though he didn’t know the boy as well as he wanted to, mostly because Keith’s distinct lack of school made it harder to talk to him outside of the station, he knew enough to be annoyed yet intrigued by his presence in the store. 

“Hey mullet,” Lance began, already putting on the charm Keith knew must have been popular with the girls at his school, “I know this isn’t enough but could you hook me up anyways? I’ll pay back tomorrow or something. “ His smile was hopeful, but Keith just rolled his eyes. 

“You know that’s not how this works, right? This is a store, kind of, and stores have set prices. You wouldn’t walk into a Walmart and try to haggle the cashier.” Lance shrugged and gave him a signature Lance look that seemed to say _I might._ Keith turned his back, hiding a small smile as he bagged the three items and sneakily snuck some of his own money into the register. Trying not to make a spectacle of what should have been a pretty normal action, he casually slid Lance’s money into the bag and handed it back to him. “You could’ve bought a shirt or something. They’re not pretty, but I’m sure there’s something camo-printed for you back by the toiletries.” Lance chuckled in response. 

“Stop pretending you don’t like seeing me like this.” He took a step back, pushing his hair back with one hand and making finger guns at Keith with the other, winking at him. This amused the slightly older boy, who just leaned against the counter and looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone else in the store. As soon as he was sure they were alone he locked eyes with Lance excitedly. Even if they were probably fake, Keith always loved to hear Lance’s stories. Ever since he was younger there was a part of him that was attracted to the concept of the supernatural, of things that shouldn’t exist but do anyways. He’d never admit it to anyone, but he really did believe in ghosts. 

“Are you going to tell me what you were doing this time that involved paint and having no shirt on? On a school night, no less.” Keith shook his head, mocking disappointment. Lance leaned forward on the counter so he was mere inches away from Keith and grinned.

“Ghosts. I was hunting ghosts. “ This part wasn’t a surprise, of course. It was always ghosts, or poltergeists, or demons. Keith always thought those were just three words for the same thing, but the young ‘ghost expert’ always insisted they were completely different. While Keith always made fun of Lance and insisted he didn’t believe in that stuff while he was around, as soon as he got home Keith would let his mind wander, imagining what it might be like to come face to face with an actual spirit. 

“Okay, sure, and what did that have to do with paint and you being shirtless in the rain?” With this Keith casually looked over Lance again, now seeing that there was blood coming out of an open wound near his waist and that there were some bits of pebbles and wood stuck to his skin. It was worrying, but Lance didn’t seem too bothered by it. If he was that hurt he would’ve said something by now. 

Lance’s face fell, feigning confusion. “What? Nothing.” His eyebrow arched in a flirting fashion, “That part was just for you to enjoy.” Keith’s face flushed but he said nothing, choosing to let his glare speak for him instead. Lance laughed obnoxiously at his own joke for a moment before calming down and putting his hands up in surrender. “Maybe if you could stop checking me out I’d tell you.” Instead of responding, Keith simply diverted his gaze away from Lance all together. In actuality, Keith wanted to slap him, but that would just feed into it. It’s not like he was actually checking him out anyways. 

“I wasn’t. I know that may be hard to believe but I’m not into deranged weirdos who don’t even know how to keep the zipper of their pants up. “ Lanced looked down and saw that his zipper wasn’t even down and then glared at Keith, causing him to laugh. Finally, he thought to himself, he was able to get Lance back for once. Despite what just happened, Lance went on. 

“Yeah, sure. Well as you saw while you were clearly checking me out, I’ve kind of got a problem. I am bleeding-” he paused for a second to motion towards his wound, as if it wasn’t obvious enough where he was bleeding from “-and despite my best efforts I couldn’t get it to stop earlier, so it would be appreciated if you could help me get situated tonight.” Both boys were quiet, Lance obviously having more to add but almost looking ashamed to add it. “My parents kicked me out last night and even though I know they didn’t really mean it, I don’t want to go back. Tomorrow we can forget about tonight and proceed with our current arrangement of me just bugging you in this gas station and not talking to you anywhere else, I promise. When do you get off?” 

Keith had to bite his tongue to avoid letting it slip that he actually wanted to talk to Lance more. The current arrangement was nice, but he felt as though there could be more potential to this friendship than what was currently being expressed. Even without these weird feelings on Keith’s end, Lance’s speech was a lot to take in. Keith never actually knew anything about Lance’s personal life. They didn’t talk like that. It was weird to think about taking Lance back to his own apartment, but it looked like that’s where this night was heading. 

“I was actually supposed to close down shop and leave a while ago, but-” _I was waiting for you._ If he couldn’t admit to wanting to get to know Lance better, Keith definitely couldn’t admit out loud he kept the store open longer because he was waiting for him to come through. Despite stopping himself, the silence more than made up for what was lost of his words. Knowing exactly why Keith kept the store open, Lance smiled and he looked at the clock hanging on the wall above Keith's head. It was now nearly 3 am and Lance had school tomorrow, looks like he’s not going. Lance looked back at Keith, noting that he put some stuff away and was now pulling off his red jacket. He tossed it at Lance. “Put that on, you’re going to get sick if you go into-” he pointed out the window at what was now a full-on thunderstorm “-that without a shirt. Just be careful with the cut. “ Lance just gave him a grateful smile and quickly threw on the jacket. 

“Ow!” 

“I just fucking told you to be careful.” Keith switched the sign from open to closed, and almost immediately afterward a car pulled up to the store. He gave Keith a desperate look and Keith just ignored it and ushered Lance out the door, keeping his head low as he pulled them towards his car. They ran through the rain and Lance was hit with a sharp pain, causing him to stumble and almost fall before Keith caught him. He lightly pushed Lance into the passenger seat of his car, his face dripping with concern as he quickly made his way back around to the driver's side. Stopping right before he got in, he instead directed his attention to his back seat. After rummaging around for a second he found what he was looking for. “Here,” he said, tossing an old shirt up at Lance, “Use that as a make-shift bandage and apply pressure to your cut. If you bleed on my seat I’ll kill you.” Lance didn’t reply aside for a helpless whine as he just pressed the shirt against his stomach without any attempt to secure it in place. Deciding that was good enough, Keith finally stumbled inside and started the car. “You’re more fucked than I thought, what the hell even happened?” 

“I’ll explain when I don’t feel like passing out, okay?” Keith understood and sat silently, connecting his phone to the radio for music and beginning to drive. It was actually kind of a long way back to Keith’s apartment, so he hoped Lance could hold out for a while. Soon the beginning to My Chemical Romance’s _I Don’t Love You_ played through the speakers and despite his obvious pain, Lance still decided he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to terrorize Keith. With understandably less energy than he would usually have, Lance chuckled softly, mumbling something about Keith being emo. “God, you’re a fucking nerd. I look forward to learning more about you tonight Keith...” 

Realizing Lance was searching for a last name that he was never provided, Keith decided to fill the gap for him. “Kogane.” 

“Kogane? Alliteration. I like it. Rolls off the tongue real nice.” Lance’s tone was playful but still different from his usual upbeat demeanor. 

After a few more songs of varying genres that Lance quietly commented on and teased Keith about, even though he would quietly hum along to nearly all of them, they arrived at Keith’s apartment building. It was small, but it’s not like the gas station paid him enough to afford someplace better. A part of him was self-conscious bringing Lance to his tiny apartment, but Lance didn’t seem like the kind of person to judge. Lance was just kicked out of his own home after all. With that in mind, Keith attempted to push down his insecurities. He noticed for the first time that somewhere along the way, the rain stopped. 

When Keith looked over to inform the other boy that they were here, he saw that Lance had fallen asleep. It was oddly adorable. Lance was all curled up on the seat with his hands clutching around his waist where the cut was and his mouth hanging open slightly. Upon further inspection, Keith noticed that he was also drooling. Keith stared at him a bit longer, quietly looking over Lance and the cut on his stomach. He still couldn’t quite see how bad it was with Lance’s hands and arms covering most of it, so he was sure to be careful when shaking him awake. 

It took a few seconds but eventually, Lance stirred and sat up. “Morning sleepyhead,” Keith said jokingly, smiling at how Lance squeezed his eyes shut and pushed his head down further into the seat. 

“Shut up,” he mumbled sleepily, barely even looking at Keith. 

“We’re here, and you kind of have to get up if you want to get inside.” Lance groaned and quickly sat up, trying to stretch out before making a pained noise and falling back down into his previous position. Keith frowned and instinctively reached towards Lance with concern before stopping himself and pulling his hand back, feeling like maybe Lance didn’t want to be touched right now. He waited a moment before hesitantly reaching out again, gently touching Lance’s shoulder. “You okay bud?” Lance nodded and sat up, slower this time. 

“Yeah, I should be fine. This thing stings like hell though.” Lance replied weakly. This was very uncharacteristic of him, it almost made Keith sad. 

“Well let’s get you back up to my place and we’ll have a look at that cut,” Keith told him.

“Just lead the way,” Lance said, smiling, then saluted Keith. Even though he seemed back to his humorous ways, you could see in his eyes that he was still in pain. Keith just ignored that for now and jumped out to quickly make his way to the other side in case Lance needed help. Lance rolled his eyes and pushed away Keith’s help as he slowly pulled himself up and out of the car, one hand still covering his wound. 

“Step away mullet, I’m not some damsel in distress who needs your help. I am perfectly capable of walking myself. “ Keith put his hands up in surrender and walked away from Lance. Lance went to take a single step forward by himself and slipped on the wet cement, falling. Somewhat shocked and torn between laughing or helping, Keith just kind of stood and watched as Lance attempted to stand up. Eventually, Keith felt bad and reached down to pull Lance back up to his feet. Lance looked defeated and embarrassed. 

“What was that about not needing my help?” Lance clutched onto Keith’s arm and groaned, looking up at the older boy with a sorrowful expression. He sighed and looked down as Keith threw his arm around Lance’s shoulder. 

“I’m sorry. I guess I can be pretty stubborn sometimes. I didn’t mean to make things harder or offend you in any way.” Lance sounded so genuinely sad, it broke Keith’s heart. He suddenly felt bad for teasing Lance and had never wanted to hug someone so badly in his life. Keith kind of contemplated for a while whether or not hugging someone you barely know is a good or bad idea. Most of his reasoning went straight to bad, but a single nagging voice in the back of his head seemed to be under the impression that that was a great idea. 

Before Keith could allow himself to change his mind he tuned out all other reasoning and carefully went in to wrap his arms around Lance. The younger boy stumbled a bit and Keith could physically feel how uncomfortable Lance was. He started to worry about whether or not this was actually a good idea, but as soon as he went to step away Lance reached out and pulled Keith back, tightly clinging onto his arms. Lance kind of awkwardly held him there and rested his forehead on Keith's shoulder. The older boy wrapped his arms back around Lance and just held him. Neither said a word, but they both knew they would be okay. 

But of course, the universe turned against them and they had to pry themselves away from each other when it started raining again. This time the rain was coming down harder. Keith looked up at the rain then smiled wearily down at Lance. “We should probably go inside now…”

“No, I think we should stay out here and prance about in the freezing cold rain. That sounds like a great time. We’ll both catch a cold and if we're lucky we can get pneumonia and die!”

Keith rolled his eyes. There's the same Lance he's been talking to for months now, he was wondering how long this nice Lance would last. “Shut up and be careful with your cut. I live on the top floor so we've got some walking to do.” He heard Lance mumble some stuff under his breath before trying to walk by himself again and nearly falling over. 

“Oh yeah, this fucker is keeping me from walking.” He grumpily walked back over to Keith’s side and allowed him to provide his assistance once again. His building was very old and nobody cared enough to install an elevator, so they had to walk up all the stairs. 

“You couldn't get an apartment on the first floor?” They were only about halfway up. It was like four in the morning and Keith didn't want to wake all the neighbors so he was trying to keep them quiet, but it was hard to do that while lugging around a body that wouldn't fucking stop complaining. 

“You couldn't have stayed at home tonight and avoided the situation entirely?” Lance mumbled out a response Keith couldn't hear and then stayed quiet the rest of the way up, which he was grateful for. Once they finally arrived at Keith’s place he had to let go of Lance and leaned him against the wall so he could grab his keys. 

Keith reached into his front pocket for his keys but they weren't there. Lance watched annoyed and worried as Keith frantically searched through every pocket that he had but the key was nowhere in sight. “Well fuck me,” said Keith in exasperation. 

“Maybe later. “ Lance replied with a smirk on his face. Keith’s face flushed but Lance couldn’t place whether it was in response to his comment or just out of pure frustration. Before he could think about it any longer Keith rolled his eyes and looked away from Lance. 

“Shut up, I can’t find my keys.” The smirk on Lance’s face disappeared and his eyebrows furrowed. He leans up away from the wall and chuckled lightly, expecting this to be a joke. Needing this to be a joke. What the fuck. He didn’t want to tell Keith earlier, but this cut is pretty fucking bad. 

“What do you mean you can't find your keys? We kind of need those.” Keith kept digging through his pockets looking for the keys, but they just weren’t there. He had his car keys earlier. What happened to his house keys? Keith didn’t know what to do. He turned back towards Lance and threw his hands up; he was already annoyed and didn’t need Lance’s comments as well. 

“I mean, I can’t fucking find my keys. Maybe they’re in my jacket, can you give it to me?” Lance grumpily tore off Keith’s jacket and tossed it at him, mumbling something about being cold. Things took a turn for the worst once Keith saw the keys weren’t in his jacket either. That was his last hope, they were actually gone. He sighed and leaned his forehead against the wall, letting his arms dangle at his sides in defeat. Keith turned his head to face Lance. “Yeah. I don’t have my keys.” 

Lance’s gaze fixed on the doorknob, he blinked a few times and tilted his head at Keith. “Wow. Okay. Well then, do you have a bobby pin?” 

Keith made a face. “No. Does it look like I’m a girl?”

“Well, hon have you seen your haircut?” Keith’s hand flew up to touch his hair and he scowled at Lance.

“Shut up with the hair jokes. Why do you need a bobby pin anyways? “ 

“Well if we can’t get in using a key then we will have to use something else.” Keith laughed and looked over at Lance, assuming this was another one of Lance’s jokes. When Lance just stared back at him with complete seriousness the realization set in and Keith’s face fell. He sat silent for a moment, glancing back and forth between Lance and the doorknob.

“You can’t actually be wanting to break into my apartment?” The expression on Lance’s face didn’t change as he half shrugged and nodded his head. Keith stood staring at him with a half confused, half-amused expression. Why the fuck does Lance actually know how to break into places? He was starting to wonder if he invited some kind of criminal to his actual home, where all his possessions were! Lance could easily come back when he knows Keith is working and steal everything he has, even if it isn’t much. Maybe you shouldn’t invite strangers to your house. Maybe this was a bad idea. 

While Keith was standing there, staring at Lance with his mouth slightly open, having this mini-crisis Lance just stood unamused. He was still bleeding out after all. It became clear to him Keith was very inexperienced in this kind of stuff so he just rolled his eyes. “Do you have a better plan?” Keith snapped back into reality and sighed. 

“No.” The corners of Lance’s mouth lifted upwards into a slight smirk. 

“Great. So no bobby pin, even though it appears you need one, do you have a paper clip on you?” Keith started to search through his pockets for a paper clip before pausing and looking up at Lance with raised eyebrows. Lance made a confused expression at him back. “Is that a no? Who doesn’t have a paper clip?” 

“Normal people. Who has ever had a use for a paperclip?” A few moments of silence pass between the two and Lance closes his eyes, calmly taking a deep breath. He needs to calm down or he might punch Keith. When he opens his eyes again they’re met directly with Keith’s own confused ones. Holy fuck are they purple? Lance chooses to ignore that for the time being and rubs his forehead, leaning back against the wall. 

“Well, obviously it has a use right now if I am asking you for one. So no bobby pin, no paper clip. We’re running out of options here. I feel useless asking at this point because I’m pretty sure you won’t have one if you didn’t have the others but I am running out of options here. I’m not a world-class criminal, I can only use what I’ve seen on tv. Do you happen to have a straw?” Keith grinned and nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a bent straw. 

“Yeah, actually!” 

“What the fuck.”

Lance was unable to comprehend why Keith had a straw but not a bobby pin, but he was also too tired to think about it any longer. Instead, he took the straw from Keith’s hand and went to work opening the door for them. It wasn’t long before the door swung open and the two of them made their way into the apartment. 

Keith sat Lance down on the couch and walked into his bathroom to look for anything he could use to help him. It’s not like he had a lot to work with but he eventually came back out with some bandaids, gauze, some rubbing alcohol, and a washcloth. He dumped all his supplies next to Lance then went to the kitchen to grab one more thing for him. 

“Dude how the fuck do you have vodka?” Keith shrugged. 

“I work nights at the slowest gas station in town.” Lance laughed. 

“Alright, fair enough.” It occurred to him he didn’t actually know a ton about this kid. What else was he hiding? He grabbed the bottle from Keith’s hand and took a swig, grimacing at the awful taste. “You drink this shit?” 

“You don’t?” 

“This may surprise you, but all of my friends are losers. The craziest we get on the weekends is when Hunk finds out there's a sale on baking supplies.” Keith stares at Lance and then bursts out laughing. After a few seconds, he stops, noticing Lance’s serious expression. 

“Oh wait you’re serious?” Lance nods. Keith really thought Lance must have been fairly popular at school, he seemed like the type. He should have figured popular kids didn’t spend their weekends hunting for ghosts. Then he remembered why they were here- Lance’s cut. 

Keith sat down and picked up the washcloth. He dampened it with the rubbing alcohol and looked up again at Lance. “We’re going to have to clean that up.” 

“Okay.” 

“It’s going to sting a little bit.” 

“It’s okay. I like pain.” Lance winked at Keith, and Keith began wiping away at the cut in response. Lance let out a string of curse words and gripped the edge of the couch. Keith snickered. 

“I thought you liked pain?” Despite how much this amused Keith, he did start acting more gentle. Lance still winced every time Keith touched him but it was the only way to make any progress. “Jesus, how did you even do this?” Lance sat up as a proud smirk appeared across his face. 

“If you must know. I happened to be exploring the house down on Pickleberry Lane. You know, legend says it’s haunted. Anyways as I was making my way through the house something jumped out at me-probably a ghost- and to save myself I ran into a cupboard that happened to be filled with some old red paint. It spilled all over me and at some point, in there I also ran into something and got this cut. On my way out the ghost was nowhere to be seen. I bet I scared it away. Guess you could say I’m kind of a hero.” He flashed his signature Lance smile at Keith, but he obviously saw right through it. For a moment he didn’t respond, he just stared. 

“Lance?” 

“Okay fine. There was a rat. I got scared and fell into the closet. Somehow I got hooked on something that was in there and the only way I was going to make it out was to leave the shirt behind. As I was released I knocked over the can of paint that was on some shelf and fell onto some jagged piece of metal that was on the ground. All because of a rat.” Keith nodded. 

“That sounds more likely.” Lance pouted and crossed his arms over this chest, allowing himself to sink further into Keith’s couch cushion. Keith glanced away from the cut to notice Lance’s childish demeanor. He rolled his eyes. “Maybe if you weren’t irresponsibly running around ‘haunted’ houses you wouldn’t get injured like this.” Keith felt Lance stiffen under his touch. Suddenly Lance was scowling, acting in a way Keith had never seen before. He pushed Keith’s hands off of him and stood up. If this action hurt him he didn’t show it. 

“You don’t even know me. Who gave you the right to comment on how responsible or irresponsible you think I am?” Keith was stunned; he didn’t realize Lance would react like this. 

“Lance I-” 

“Stop it. You’re just like everyone else I thought was my friend. You don’t understand what I’m going through but you judge me anyways!” He was almost shaking. What Keith said had obviously attacked something that Lance was severely sensitive about and now he felt awful for ever opening his mouth. Just half an hour ago Keith was thinking about how he would get to know Lance better, how they could become better friends, but instead, he was pushing him away. No longer knowing what his boundaries were, Keith hesitated to reach out and touch Lance again. When he finally did Lance just pulled his arm back and turned to face away from him. 

Keith sighed. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I don’t know what you’re going through and I was out of line.” Lance didn’t do anything to acknowledge that he heard him so Keith took a deep breath and tried to think about his next words carefully. “I am your friend or I uh. I want to be. I want the opportunity to try and understand you. If you’ll still let me?” He could see Lance trying to calm himself down. Slowly his fists unclenched and his shoulders relaxed. It didn’t appear he was angry anymore. When Lance turned around Keith saw there were tear tracks running down his face, but he didn’t say anything. 

Lance sat down next to Keith again and sniffled. He sat upwards again and tried to bring back some of his usual Lance-like demeanor. “You’re just lucky I’m still bleeding and you’re the only one that can help me right now.” Keith let himself laugh. 

“You could go to the hospital.” 

“Do you want me to?” Lance started to stand up but Keith quickly pulled him back down. 

“No.” The smile on Lance’s face made it apparent that he had no intention of leaving in the first place. That still didn’t stop him from sighing over dramatically. 

“Fiiiine. Since you want me to stay so bad.” They laughed together for a moment, just enjoying each other’s company. Finally, they stopped and Keith picked up where he left off on Lance’s injury. They sat in comfortable silence as Keith continued to clean away all the dirt and paint before Lance cleared his throat. “So um. What do you want to know?” Keith stopped for a second to meet his eyes. 

“Huh?” 

“You said you wanted to understand me more. So what about me do you want to know?” Keith began to clean again and shrugged. 

“I don’t know. Your family, friends, school? Everything I guess?” Lance laughed again. 

“Everything might take a while.” 

“I have the time.” 

Turns out giving Lance free rein to talking about everything meant that he was literally going to talk about everything. He started a long spiel about every aspect of his life he could possibly talk about. This included how much he hated his teachers, what kind of video games him and his friends played, failed relationships, and anything in between. The spiel also revealed that Lance seemed to be bisexual since he complained about both male and female past lovers. Keith didn’t make a big deal out of it, but it was nice to note. He himself was gay, but he wasn’t going to tell Lance that yet. It was his turn to talk right now. 

To anyone else, it would’ve seemed like Lance just liked the sound of his own voice, but Keith understood that Lance probably just didn’t encounter a lot of people whom he could talk about this stuff with. So far he’s only mentioned two real friends, that being Hunk and Pidge. Keith had heard of them before, though briefly. From what he gathered at the station they seemed to provide Lance with the materials he needed to embark on his adventures without actually accompanying him themselves. They sounded smart and Keith hoped to meet them someday. 

When the conversation began to shift towards his family, Lance became more hesitant to talk. “Okay so I know I told you they kicked me out and everything but that wasn’t really my entire family’s choice. My mom sobbed when I walked out and all my younger siblings tried to chase after me. It’s really my dad that doesn’t put up with my shit, you know? He doesn’t like ghost hunting. He doesn’t like that I’m not the best at school.” He paused for a second and his face fell. “He really doesn’t like that I’m not straight.” This time Keith stopped. 

By now the cut was cleaned, he was just trying to get the bleeding to stop and was wrapping him with the gauze. He placed a comforting hand on Lance’s shoulder. “I’m sorry man.” Lance smiled and shrugged his hand off, laughing awkwardly. 

“It’s cool. I mean it’s not but it’s whatever. Everyone else is very supportive. My siblings, my mom, my aunts, and uncles. They all adore me, as they should. I’m pretty great. I can’t let it get to me that one person out of many doesn’t like who I’m attracted to.” Keith couldn’t really tell if this confidence was real or not. “Anyways…” As Keith finished up the last of his work Lance turned to face him better. “What’s your story, mullet? I’ve been talking so long it’s only fair that you get a chance.” 

Keith was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. He wasn’t sure how to open up about his situation without just getting pity in response. He hated pity. But, Lance was right. If Lance could open up then Keith could too. “Well. I dropped out of high school.” Lance grinned. 

“Well, I figured that much out on my own. There’s only one high school in this town and I just know I couldn’t miss your emo ass wandering around.” Keith laughed. As much as he didn’t like the emo jokes, he had to admit it was cute how committed Lance was to them. 

“Okay then. I’ll get to something more secretive I guess.” He avoided eye contact. “Might as well get the big thing out of the way first. Aha. My parents are dead.” Silence. Neither dared to break it. The grin fell off of Lance’s face. Obviously he wasn’t expecting that. 

Lance kind of sputtered for a second before finally speaking real words. “Oh. Wow, I uh.” He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, trying to think of an appropriate response that wouldn’t offend Keith. “I’m sorry. Is that why you dropped out?” 

Keith shook his head. “No. Well actually. Yes? I don’t know. My mom died when I was younger so I never actually knew her but my dad died just last year so that was kind of hard for me to handle. It’s not like I liked school all that much anyway. I still had my older brother but yeah. I guess it just made sense for me to drop out.” It was silent for a little moment longer, both boys sitting perfectly still. Eventually, Lance reached out and held Keith’s hand as an attempt to be comforting. Of course, Keith didn’t mind at all. He smiled up at Lance as a thank you. 

“You know, if you didn’t drop out and start working at the gas station I probably would’ve never met you. So this is good.” Keith narrowed his eyes. 

“Are you trying to say it’s a good thing that my father died? You could have just talked to me at school you know.” Lance panicked. 

“What? No! I’m not saying that because if I were that’d be really stupid of me! I just...I-” Keith laughed and nudged his shoulder. 

“Relax dude,” he squeezed Lance’s hand, “I’m just messing with you.” Lance visibly relaxed. 

“Oh.” He blinked twice. “Yeah. I knew that.” Lance was back to trying to act cool. Keith couldn’t help but feel comfortable with Lance. This was exactly the sort of connection that he wanted. 

There wasn’t really anything else to say. Of course, Keith could keep going about his past, but the worst was already out there. He’d much rather sit happily with Lance instead of bringing up more depressing shit. Lance was looking fondly into Keith’s eyes and suddenly Keith was aware of how close they were. At some point, they must have moved closer together. Lance lifted a hand to move Keith's hair out of his eyes then left it sitting gently against his face, almost cradling it. He chuckled to himself, thinking about getting the boy a ponytail to keep his hair out of his face. His body was acting before his brain could compute and before he knew what was going on he felt himself leaning forward. He noticed Keith beginning to move forward as well and both boys were absentmindedly coming together before a loud banging noise sent them flying to opposite ends of the couch. 

Keith was acutely aware of how hard his heart was pounding in his chest when he looked up and saw Shiro standing in the hall. His bedroom door was swung open behind him. “Keith. What the fuck?” He rubbed his eyes, obviously still half asleep. “You know it’s like,” he looked down at a watch that wasn’t there, “four in the morning? I have work tomorrow.” If he saw what was just happening, he didn’t mention it. Keith was relieved because, to be honest, he didn’t really know what that was. 

“Sorry, Shiro. We’ll be quiet.” Shiro mumbled something and turned around to go back to his room. He stopped just as he got to the end of the hall and turned back around. “Oh, by the way, you left your keys on the counter earlier so I put them in your room.” When Keith looked back at Lance he was obviously blushing but looking away to hide it. 

“So um. Who was that?” 

“Oh. That’s my brother, Shiro.” 

“He lives here?” 

“I mean, yeah.” 

“And he’s been here this whole time?” 

“Well considering we never saw him walk in, I’m gonna say yes.” Lance took a deep breath then finally remade eye contact with Keith. 

“Then why the fuck did we have to break in earlier?” 

“...What?” 

“We could have just knocked, Keith.” Fuck. Keith didn’t really think of that. Shiro wasn’t always home, most of the time he was staying with his fiance. Even if he did know Shiro was home he would have felt bad waking him up. That sentiment didn’t matter much now since they woke Shiro up anyways. Not knowing how to respond to Lance’s revelation, Keith just gave him a sheepish smile and shrugged his shoulders. Lance burst out laughing but then covered his own mouth, now aware that there were other people in the apartment and that they should probably be quiet. “You’re unbelievable, dude.” He stifles another laugh. “And you called me irresponsible?” Keith frowned. 

“I said I was sorry. Let’s go to bed before you’re given any more material to bully me with.” He gathered all the supplies they were using previously and moved them from the couch to the coffee table. It’d probably be okay if he just put it away in the morning. For now, he led Lance back to his room, awkwardly shoving some mess aside as they walked in. “I wasn’t expecting people to come over today, or ever really. Sorry, it’s kind of a mess.” Lance smiled at him. 

“It’s cool, I understand. Reminds me of home anyways.” He wandered over and sat down on the edge of the bed as if he’d been here a million times. Keith made his way over to the dresser and started digging through the top drawer. Eventually, he found something of Shiro’s that he never gave back and handed it over to Lance.

“Here’s something to wear for tonight. I honestly don’t know if it’ll fit you but it’s better than going without anything?” 

“Well, I’d prefer to sleep naked...but I guess you and I could explore that option another time.” Lance winked at Keith for what must have been the hundredth time tonight. His constant flirting was going to be the end of Keith. Remembering what happened, or almost happened, earlier Keith was more flustered by Lance’s comment than usual. He chose to ignore it and instead grabbed an extra blanket that he kept in his closet. 

“We won’t be sleeping together. I mean. We’re not sleeping in the same bed! You can have my room tonight and I’ll crash on the couch.” From the corner of his eye, he could see Lance’s face fall. 

“Wait I wasn’t trying to make you feel weird or anything-” 

“It’s not that! You’re just hurt so I want you to have your space and be able to feel better.” Lance pouted. 

“I think I’d feel better if you stayed with me.” He was staring up at Keith with pleading eyes that made his heart flutter. With Lance looking at him like that, it was hard to tell him no. Keith sighed. 

“Okay. Only because you’re being a baby about it.” Lance grinned and quickly threw on the shirt Keith gave him. He figured it would make him feel more comfortable with this arrangement. Keith, meanwhile, still could not shake what had happened earlier. To try and combat his heart beating rapidly in his chest, Keith got in bed but stayed as far away from Lance’s side as was physically possible. He might as well have been falling off. Keith also refused to even look in his direction. If he could just close his eyes and fall asleep that would be great. 

This wasn’t exactly what Lance was expecting. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Lance glanced around the room, still not laying down. “You were going to go to sleep with the light on?” Keith didn’t react. Sighing, Lance got up and switched off the light switch. When he made his way back to the bed he basically copied Keith, sticking to his own side and leaving plenty of open space in the middle. Lance wasn’t good at falling asleep because his mind raced too much. So instead he just stared at the wall, hoping that eventually his body would betray him and he’d pass out from exhaustion. Something told him Keith was having a hard time falling asleep too, but that same part of his brain was also saying to just leave Keith alone. 

Once Lance figured that Keith must have been asleep he rolled over so that he could see him. The light coming in from the window cast over him in a way that Lance found beautiful. Even his mullet wasn't so bad from this view. With these happy thoughts filling his mind, Lance was able to finally fall into a peaceful sleep. He was right, having Keith here did help him feel better. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time publishing something that I've written :) Fiction-writing is not my strong suit so I understand that this isn't the best but I hope you enjoy it anyways. Sorry, there isn't a ton of ghost-facing in this first part. The next part will heavily feature the supernatural elements promised in the name. This was just some introductory fluff.


End file.
